Shaw Communications to acquire ViaWest

04 August 2014 |

Shaw Communications is to acquire US co-location services provider ViaWest for approximately $1.2 billion.

ViaWest operates 27 data centres across eight western US markets, including Denver, Dallas, Austin, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Portland, Minneapolis and Phoenix. It employs over 350 people and is said to serve more than 1,300 customers.

Offering a combination of traditional co-location and cloud-based services, the acquisition of ViaWest will help expand Shaw’s enterprise offering.

“We identified the data centre sector as an attractive opportunity adjacent to our core business and with the acquisition of ViaWest, Shaw gains significant capabilities, scale and immediate expertise in the growing marketplace for enterprise data services,” said Brad Shaw, CEO, Shaw Communications.

Shaw added that the company plans to leverage the ViaWest management team’s experience to accelerate the development of its Canadian data centre platform.

The acquisition is expected to close in September 2014 and is subject to US regulatory approval.